LOOKING BACK

10-20-40-100 YEARS AGO

100 YEARS AGO....Rockdale Oil Mill was beingrenovated with owner Tom Beesley promising the facility’s seedhouse “would be one of the largest structures in Milam County.”The Rockdale Woman’s clubhad provided three placesdowntown for visiting farmersto leave their teams of horsesduring shopping trips to town.Rockdale had a new doctoras Dr. T. S. Barkley of Dallasarrived to begin his medicalpractice.The Reporter was lobbyingfor a downtown telegraph office,noting that to send a telegraphbusiness people had to walk ahalf-mile to the I&GS tower touse a “sometimes unreliable”phone service to the telegramoperator.FORTY YEARS AGO....The South Milam CountyUnited Way was beginning a$20,458 drive to help fund 10Rockdale-area public serviceagencies.Kenneth and Chris Waterspurchased the furniture andappliance department of theW. T. Pearson & Sons firm onNorth Main.Rockdale native Larry Phillips filed a story from Munich,where the 1972 Olympics wasbring held.A $5,000 donation from theAlcoa Foundation helped assurethe creation of a new city park

in Lexington.TWENTY YEARS AGO....A “personalized” relief effort,led by First Baptist Church, wasdelivering badly-needed itemsto a town in the Louisiana deltaravaged by Hurricane Andrew.City council members werediscussing a proposal to increaseRockdale’s tax rate from 49.81 to51.96 cents.Davis Daniels and SammyKershaw were to headline the1992 Rockdale Fair.County extension agents listedthree ways to combat Milam’sannual cricket invasion: Grab ashoe, roll up a newspaper, prayfor an early frost.TEN YEARS AGO....A night dispatcher taking ashort break outside the RockdalePolice Station noticed unusualactivity across US 79, leading toan arrest and a foiled burglaryat Texas Burger/Subway.City council members werediscussing a drop in Rockdale’stax rate from 57.27 to 55.31cents.Rockdale received a $50,000Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept.grant to assist with improvements at Veterans MemorialPark.Temporar y directors inthe new Post Oak SavannahGroundwater Conservation District were to answer questionsabout the new jurisdiction in apublic meeting.